The present invention relates to a transport cart for transporting a patient care apparatus from one location to another within a medical facility and, more particularly, to an apparatus and system to facilitate the movement of a transport cart and the patient care apparatus when coupled together.
During the care of patients in a medical care facility, particularly infants, the infant is often maintained in a specialized environment provided within an infant care apparatus, such as an incubator or a combination incubator and warmer. An example of an infant incubator is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,824 of Koch et al and entitled “Infant Incubator With Air Curtain”. A combination apparatus that combines the function of the infant incubator along with the function of an infant warmer is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,935 of Mackin et al and entitled “Infant Warming Apparatus”.
In either types of the aforedescribed infant care apparatus, the infant is normally resting on a bed within the apparatus, however, there are times where the infant must be moved from one location to another within that medical care facility. While it is, of course possible to remove the infant from the particular infant care apparatus and thereafter transport the infant by means of a separate vehicle, it is more advantageous to move the infant care apparatus itself with the infant still contained therein. In such manner, the various services and treatment being provided to the infant need not be discontinued, such as monitors and the like, and also there is less disruption and consequent stress to the infant since the infant can remain in the protective environment throughout the move rather than being removed therefrom during the move and eventual return back to the protective environment of the original infant care apparatus.
Accordingly, to facilitate or carry out the move of the infant care apparatus containing the infant, there can be used a transport cart that basically docks with the infant care apparatus and both the infant care apparatus and the transport cart are coupled together and moved as a unitary apparatus. The infant care apparatus is, during the move, thereby disconnected from the normal electrical power and gases, such as oxygen and air, supplied by the medical facility and those basic needs are thereafter provided by the transport cart. The transport cart normally has batteries to supply the electrical power and gas tanks to supply the needed gases to the infant care apparatus. As such, the transport cart and the infant care apparatus are moved together without any loss of service or care to the infant.
One of the difficulties, however, with the use a docking transport cart with an infant care apparatus is that the combined transport cart and infant care apparatus becomes difficult to steer since the overall apparatus is larger then just an infant care apparatus and still must be steered by the user to negotiate the combination transport cart/infant care apparatus through the hospital corridors and through doors to reach the ultimate destination. Thus, the overall combination is rather unwieldy and is difficult to maneuver through the hospital. Since the infant care apparatus may have four caster wheels contacting the floor and the transport cart may also have three or more caster wheels and it is difficult to coordinate all of the caster wheels in moving that combination transport cart/infant care apparatus through the health care facility.
As such, the movement of a combination transport cart/infant care apparatus having conventional casters on both pieces of apparatus experience a phenomenon known as “fish tailing” which makes the movement of such apparatus very difficult and hard to control. On the other hand, if the apparatus were provided with fixed wheels, that is, the wheels rotate about a fixed axis and are capable of only unidirectional movement, the apparatus is also difficult to maneuver since the ability to turn or change direction is substantially impaired. The advantage of having a centrally located, fixed direction wheel in moving a combination transport cart/infant care apparatus is well described in U.S Patent Application Publication 2006/0016009, published Jan. 26, 2006 and the disclosure of that Patent Application is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
There are certain casters having a directional braking system such that the wheel is provided with a brake lever to enable the user to alter the function of the caster from omni-directional to a fixed direction movement. Such devices normally have some brake lever that must be activated by a user to change the operation of the caster or some other device operated manually by means of a cable. In any event, the change in function of the caster requires some action on the part of the user and, while feasible, the caster itself adds additional complexity and cost to the apparatus.
It would be, therefore, advantageous to have a system that allows the best of both worlds, that is, when moved individually, the transport cart and infant care apparatus have casters the enable those apparatus to be moved omni-directionally rolling on the casters, however, when the two apparatus are coupled together, one of the casters is converted to a fixed direction wheel to gain the advantage of a centrally located, one fixed direction wheel so that there is a stability to moving the transport cart/infant care apparatus.
It would be further advantageous if the conversion of a caster from omni-directional movement to a fixed direction movement could be accomplished automatically and without the deliberate intervention of a user.